A group of rabbis is calling for a boycott of Portland.

In a full-page ad that ran in the Portland Press Herald last week, rabbis from the United States and Canada urged their communities to “avoid patronizing and financially contributing to the City of Portland.”

The ad was signed by more than 100 Jewish leaders from 22 states and Canada. However, no one from Maine signed their name to the ad.

The effort is a response to the Portland City Council unanimously voting more than two months ago to divest from companies doing business in Israel in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The council has faced continued backlash for the vote, especially when it became clear that the city had no funds invested in companies doing business in Israel at the time of the vote, making it a purely symbolic act.

The ad in Thursday’s Press Herald did not mince words addressing the council’s vote to divest.

“Rather than embracing a Jewish community still reeling from the shock of the heinous October 7th massacre and the aftershocks of record-high global antisemitic incidents, the Portland City Council has decided to set a double standard that inspires and encourages antisemitism across the United States,” it read.

Rabbi Dovid Asher of Synagogue Keneseth Beth Israel in Richmond, Virginia, organized the group that bought the ad.

“This seemed to be the most powerful way to send a message,” he said. “Portland, Maine, is not going to impact the state of Israel in any real way, but when you treat Jews differently it makes us all less safe. People don’t realize how dangerous it is for Jews right now in this country.”

He said condemning Israel while not calling out other international conflicts was antisemitic.

“This hyper-focus on vilifying Jews is just a discrimination beyond imagination,” he said.

Asher said that when he heard about the City Council’s vote to divest he felt morally obligated to take action.

“It seemed like Portland was joining a worldwide movement to start an economic war against the Jewish state,” he said.

He reached out to other Jewish leaders around the country and in Canada and they decided that taking out an ad in the Press Herald would be the most effective way to reach people. Although his synagogue paid for the ad, he said he collected financial contributions from about a quarter of the people who signed their names to it. Some who didn’t want to publicly sign the ad also supported his efforts, he said.

Though no rabbis in Maine signed onto the open letter to Portland, several Jewish leaders in Maine were among those who offered support without attaching their names, Asher said. Rabbis at several synagogues in and around Portland did not respond on Monday to questions about the ad.

In a written statement, Jewish Voices for Peace condemned the ad. The organization supported the divestment initiative and describes itself on its website as “The world’s largest Jewish organization standing in solidarity with Palestine.”

The group’s statement said the ad “purposely ignores the fact that Portland Jews were instrumental in the drafting and passage of the city’s historic resolution to divest from Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. … We reject this inflammatory message published in this advertisement, paid and supported by out-of-state interests. Their views do not represent the diversity of opinions in Portland’s Jewish communities.”

While the council’s vote was unanimous when the resolution passed in September, Mayor Mark Dion has since publicly apologized for his vote to divest and said he would not vote for such a resolution if he could do it over.

DION’S APOLOGY

Asher said that Dion’s apology was a step in the right direction.

“It’s one of the most courageous decisions I’ve ever seen by a politician in this polarized climate. It was incredibly meaningful,” said Asher.

Dion said he is concerned about the ad and that he wants to do what he can to minimize any impact it could have on the city’s economy. He hopes that with several new councilors taking their seats next month, that the council might be able to revisit the issue in the coming months.

“Clearly Portland’s Jewish community would like us to take action on this,” said Dion.

While he said council rules would make it impossible to repeal the resolution, he believes it would be possible to pass a new resolution effectively rendering the old one moot, something he said he plans to explore with the new councilors once they take their seats in December.

Council April Fournier, who sponsored the resolution, did not respond Monday to questions about the ad.